Semiconductor memory devices typically are used in a computer system for purposes of storing data related to the various operations of the system. The memory device may be packaged as a unit in a semiconductor package to form a “memory chip,” and several such chips may be assembled together to form a memory module. In general, for purposes of accessing a particular memory device, control, data and address signals are provided to the external terminals of the device and are generated by a memory controller of the computer system.
Occasionally, when data is read from a computer memory, the data may contain errors. In this manner, some errors may be due to a memory device failure, whereas other errors may be random soft errors occurring with memory devices that have not failed. Regardless of the source of the errors, data may be stored in the computer memory in a form that allows the detection and correction of such errors. In this regard, payload data may be stored with redundancy data (error correction code (ECC), for example), which permits the detection and possible correction of errors associated with the payload data.